Rick Pyves's father was a Second World War rear gunner

Night Madness

PICKERING -- When his mother died five years ago, Rick Pyves found 230 letters she and his father had written to one another and letters his father had written to his parents during the latter part of the Second World War, most when Ron Pyves was overseas.

The Pickering resident says when he found the letters "a light bulb went on" in his head: his parents, Ron and Kay, were "eye-witnesses to history -- both in Europe and on the homefront."

Five years and 5,000 writing hours later, he has released Night Madness, A Rear Gunner's Story of Love, Courage and Hope in World War II.

"There are really three stories," Pyves says. "There's a love story, a war story and a story about post traumatic stress disorder."

Pyves says his dad suffered from undiagnosed PTSD "but all he knew was he was depressed." Pyves says it can take years, even decades, for PTSD to manifest and that's how it was with his father. But even before it affected Ron Pyves in the late 1960s, his son says his father couldn't watch war movies or go to fireworks displays. While his father didn't speak about the war a lot, Pyves says when his dad was depressed he would bring up the bombing of Dresden in February, 1945, in which he took part. The raids killed an estimated 25,000 people and remain controversial.

Ron Pyves was a rear-gunner in Bomber Command, tasked with bombing Germany into submission. He flew in Halifax and then Lancaster bombers. His place was at the back of the aircraft in a bubble, manning machine guns to protect the big, slow birds from speedy German fighter planes. Pyves notes it was a lonely proposition: the rear gunner was isolated from the rest of the crew for hours at a time. It was cold and, on top of everything else, German pilots tried to take out the rear gunners.

Incredibly, Ron Pyves survived 35 missions and returned home. In his 434 Squadron, Pyves notes 55 per cent of the losses occurred in the first five missions, 76 per cent in the first 10.

As for the love story part of the book, Pyves notes his mom and dad met just three times before he went overseas in 1944. The letters revealed to him how their relationship developed.

Pyves's painstaking research saw him review countless pages of archival documents. He contacted his father's former crew mates and the book ends with their stories.

Pyves started the book in a creative writing class at Durham College. A member of the Writers' Community of Durham Region, he sent it off to a publisher for some feedback. Halfway through it, the publisher contacted him saying he was enjoying the book and would publish it. Pyves has already finished a first draft of his next book, The Silent 60th, on the 60th Battalion, Victoria Rifles of Canada.